Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Sep 2020)

Comparison of VSV Pseudovirus and Focus Reduction Neutralization Assays for Measurement of Anti-Andes orthohantavirus Neutralizing Antibodies in Patient Samples

  • Cecilia Vial,
  • Annalis Whitaker,
  • Annalis Whitaker,
  • Jan Wilhelm,
  • Jan Wilhelm,
  • Jimena Ovalle,
  • Ruth Perez,
  • Francisca Valdivieso,
  • Marcela Ferres,
  • Constanza Martinez-Valdebenito,
  • Philip Eisenhauer,
  • Gregory J. Mertz,
  • Jay W. Hooper,
  • Jason W. Botten,
  • Jason W. Botten,
  • Pablo A. Vial,
  • Pablo A. Vial

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2020.00444
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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Andes orthohantavirus (ANDV) is the etiologic agent of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), which has a case fatality rate around 35%, with no effective treatment or vaccine available. ANDV neutralizing antibody (NAb) measurements are important for the evaluation of the immune response following infection, vaccination, or passive administration of investigational monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies. The standard assay for NAb measurement is a focus reduction neutralization test (FRNT) featuring live ANDV and must be completed under biosafety level (BSL)-3 conditions. In this study, we compared neutralization assays featuring infectious ANDV or vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) pseudovirions decorated with ANDV glycoproteins for their ability to measure anti-ANDV NAbs from patient samples. Our studies demonstrate that VSV pseudovirions effectively measure NAb from clinical samples and have greater sensitivity compared to FRNT with live ANDV. Importantly, the pseudovirus assay requires less labor and sample materials and can be conducted at BSL-2.

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